Podcast Summary: The Dave Gerhardt Show – "What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Restaurant Marketing"

Guest: Jessica Serrano, CMO at Bagel Brands
Date: March 2, 2026
Host: Dave Gerhardt

Overview

This episode explores the rich overlap between B2C and B2B marketing through the lens of restaurant industry veteran Jessica Serrano, now CMO at Bagel Brands (Einstein Bros., Noah’s, Bruegger’s, Manhattan Bagel). Together with host Dave Gerhardt, Jessica unpacks how lessons from running iconic food brands translate directly into the B2B world and vice versa. They delve into the impact of AI, scaling from local to national, the practical realities of brand and sales alignment, tech integration headaches, and the nuanced human challenges behind modern marketing.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Restaurant Brands Pivoted During & After COVID

• Jessica on her progression: from QSRs (Taco Bell, Burger King) thriving during COVID to Dig Inn, a fast-casual/office lunch chain devastated by empty offices.
• Adapting to Change: Rapid shift toward e-commerce and third-party delivery was necessary for survival. Dig Inn’s catering arm became a focus, effectively turning a B2C company into one with significant B2B dynamics.
  • Quote: "Covid...almost didn't survive it, but they did. They figured out how to right-size things and get onto third-party delivery. And it really transformed...a brick and mortar business into an E commerce business, whether they wanted to or not." [04:14]

2. B2C & B2B Marketing: More Similar Than You Think

• Both involve understanding multiple buyer personas, targeting acquisition and retention, and scaling processes with limited resources.
• The office buyer ("admin") vs. end consumer has distinct needs, echoing B2B buying committees.
• Jessica details evolving from mass drip campaigns to building tailored B2B sales cadences, referral programs, and leveraging tech like HubSpot.
  • Quote: "On the B2B side, there were nuances to the decision makers...there’s the office admin...but then I had nutritionists for professional sports teams...and a university that wants to know if I can do house accounts..." [09:16]

3. AI & Automation Transforming the Marketer’s Workflow

• AI is democratizing strategy, speeding up creative/ad versioning, and surfacing actionable data.
• Jessica’s path: from using manual processes and basic email segmentation at Dig Inn to discovering/consulting on AI-powered CRMs specialized for catering.
  • Key Moment: Jessica advises a fledgling tech company to pivot solely to their AI CRM solution, seeing a strong product-market fit for catering.
  • Quote: "Your real gem in your product is that you figured out CRM for catering...as a marketer that's trying to figure out how to do it on my own, nobody else is doing it." [11:44]
• Discusses tools: ChatGPT for content/voice, Claude for financial modeling and presentations.
• Ongoing tension: Some sales teams and marketers are threatened or unsure about their evolving roles as AI advances.
  • Quote: "There's still quite a bit of hesitation from sales folks...If this AI automated CRM solution is doing this for me, what does it mean for me as a sales rep?" [13:14]

4. Brand Building vs. Driving Sales—No Longer a vs., It’s an "And"

• Jessica’s Philosophy: “Build the brand over time and drive sales overnight.” [29:12]
• Both must happen in tandem; sales tactics keep your job, strategic branding future-proofs the business.
• Data (loyalty, repeat purchase behavior) is now core to unlocking growth opportunities once invisible in a mostly cash business.

5. Practical Campaigns & Tactics

• Mining previous customers: Jessica’s team revived revenue by calling/emailing lapsed catering clients to uncover why they left and win them back.
  • Quote: "I can get hundreds more $20 transactions or I can go and get a few $500. And I really, I need to do both..." [07:20]
• Clever segmentation: Filtering out personal emails to up-sell corporate catering, incentivizing referrals with free product.
• Local vs. national marketing: At small scale, grassroots/local store marketing works (think community events, targeting local needs). At large scale, focus shifts to national "big rocks" but with a data-driven local overlay for underperforming markets.

6. The Unsexy Reality: Systems, Integrations, & Constraints

• The real magic (and bottleneck) is in seamless integration across martech systems—from loyalty, POS, CRM to campaign measurement.
• Jessica’s ‘marketing-genie’ wish: true integration.
  • Quote: "I'm surprised how many things could be operated more seamlessly if we could just figure out how to get different systems to talk to each other." [44:23]
• Each brand, market, and team has unique resources and DNA. Playbooks don’t always port cleanly—understanding the business context is everything.

7. Curiosity & Continuous Learning in AI

• Jessica emphasizes “active, safe experimentation” with AI, both in her personal weekend hackathons and industry hackathons with peers.
• There’s power in learning from others, watching early adopters, and being hands-on—especially as rapid iteration replaces big, formal launches.
  • Quote: "A lot of us got into this business because we care about hospitality, but we're also realizing, like, we don't want to get left behind." [20:18]
• Both speakers agree: you can only internalize AI’s power by actually using the tools, not just watching demos.

8. The Operations-Marketing Interface: Experience Is Brand

• Jessica does not own in-store ops directly, but partners closely with operational teams, using real-time feedback/AI to spot and fix experience issues.
• Google reviews are more than vanity—teams dissect them to spot real problems.
  • Quote: "If you've ever left a review, I guarantee you people are in a room reading those reviews, talking about it, figuring out how we're going to do something differently." [39:41]
• Human factors (staff turnover, execution) are part of the brand reality—marketers must collaborate, not just hand customers off.

9. Social & Content: Volume, Humanity, and "Doing Bad Stuff"

• The best content is made in the field: “the bakeries, in the restaurants” [47:20] – not in studios.
• Volume and speed of posting matter more than overcuration. Viral content should lead paid—don’t just boost what isn’t proven.
• Personality-driven, behind-the-scenes content (think: 4 am bakery runs, life as a parent, team quirks) breaks through the noise, especially as AI-generated content floods the market.
  • Quote: "I wish that more social marketers had the courage to just throw stuff out there...You're not going to know what's good unless you're at a high level of volume." [46:38]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jessica Serrano on B2C/B2B overlap:
  "You cannot treat this like traditional restaurant marketing." [09:45]
• On the marketing role in an AI world:
  "I feel like I still get to be like, I'm like the puppet master now. You know, Like, I still gotta have the taste, the vision, the ideas." – Dave Gerhardt [14:34]
• On loyalty programs:
  "People get all distracted about loyalty and discounts...the reason for loyalty is known diner data. Straight up." [29:56]
• On the differences between Taco Bell and Burger King:
  "Taco Bell is built off LTOs...It's in their DNA. And then I joined an organization that...we actually just need to sell the Whopper. We need to focus on the core..." [37:14]
• On team resources:
  "That's the reality...It's about getting clever in terms of, like, how can we tap into external partners to help us to do those things best." [34:54]
• On the importance of integrations:
  "Integrations sound so technical, but I'm surprised how many things could be operated more seamlessly if we could just figure out how to get different systems to talk to each other." [44:23]

Key Timestamps

• 03:44 – How Dig Inn pivoted during COVID & entered B2B
• 07:20 – Building a catering-focused sales and marketing motion
• 09:16 – Understanding B2B-style buyer personas in food
• 11:44 – AI CRM for catering: a product pivot story
• 13:14 – Psychological impact of AI on sales and marketing teams
• 16:12 – Comparing ChatGPT and Claude for marketing workflows
• 29:12 – Brand over time vs. sales overnight mantra
• 39:41 – Google reviews as a tool for marketer-operations collaboration
• 44:23 – Integrations: The CMO’s ultimate wish
• 46:38 – Why social marketers must "do bad stuff" and post more

Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is direct, irreverent, and pragmatic. Both speakers emphasize practical results over theory, with plenty of self-deprecating humor about tech adoption, parenting, and the ironies of the marketing industry.

For listeners:

• The line between B2C and B2B is blurrier than you think—fundamentals around understanding buyers, leveraging data, and aligning sales/brand apply everywhere.
• AI is a force multiplier but only if adopted thoughtfully—experience, voice, and strategic taste still matter.
• Local context, operational reality, and technology integration are the new battlegrounds for marketers.
• Real human connection (behind-the-scenes content, honest outreach) and curiosity are the enduring marketing superpowers as AI-generated "slop" grows.

Suggested Next Step:
Connect with Jessica Serrano on LinkedIn and send her your favorite song lyric, or experiment with your own behind-the-scenes brand content this week.